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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

PAPER 7: RELATIONSHIP WITH HIERARCHY

In the history of
the Church there have been several changes in the relationship between the
hierarchy, the religious and the lay faithful.
The Christian ideal has been described in Acts 4: 32 “The group of believers was one in mind and
heart. None of them said that any of their belongings were their own, but they
all shared with one another everything they had.” Soon various roles began to be assigned to
lectors, acolytes, cantors, deacons, etc.
Gradually especially after Emperor Constantine, Latin became the
official language of the Church and there developed a “clericalization of the
Church” in which the clergy began to take on the roles that had formerly been
given to the lay faithful. The Second
Vatican Council was a turning point. It
emphasized the Church as the People of God and many of the roles were
re-assigned to the members of Christ’s faithful. In the Archdiocese of Bombay, a Synod was
held in 2001 to take a fresh look at our vision and mission the light of
the Council. Eleven years later, we take a fresh look at
the relationship between hierarchy, priests, religious and Laity in the light
of modern developments and the needs of the Archdiocese.

Survey
highlights :

1. Approachability and availability of priests:
88 % of respondents agreed that priests were approachable and available.
Collaboration in parish ministry: 80% of respondents agreed that priests and the lay faithful collaborate in
parish ministry. Close to 60-65% of
respondents saying that this collaboration is useful and helpful with the
priest encouraging the lay faithful to undertake training programs.

2. 42%
respondents from the Commissions said the role of the priest in priest –laity
collaboration was of supervising the laity. However 72% of PPC members said the
primary role of the priest is to provide suitable guidance. Close to 75% agreed
that there was accountability in the financial management of the parish with
only a minority of 9% saying there was no accountability in the financial
systems operating in the parishes.

3. Priest and PPC: 60% of PPC members felt there was a spirit of
openness in PPC meetings with 66% saying that representatives of SCCs and
parish associations were given enough opportunity to express their views and
group concerns in the PPC meetings. 90% found the representation of women in
the PPC to be adequate.

Overall several key
strengths emerge: Our priests are approachable and available with a positive
orientation towards collaboration. There is inclusiveness in the PPC
composition and openness of expression in the PPC interactions, as also a voice
of representation to the various parish associations. One also notes that there
generally exists recognition of a strong accountability in financial matters of
the parish.

The above positives
are a strong validation of our historical and on-going institutional and
communitarian efforts to build a strong and vibrant Archdiocese. The basic
challenge is how to consolidate our strengths and take them to the next level
to promote and achieve the vision and mission of our archdiocese and respective
parishes in response to the ‘signs of the times’.

Healthy and
wholesome relationships can only develop where
the following key elements are given prominence : Communication, conflict resolution,
collaboration and co-responsibility and the willingness to change.

Communication is not a language,
it is relationship. Effective communication between the clergy and the lay
faithful and among priests themselves must first convey, “You are important to
me and I want to take this communication forward.” The skills involved would be empathetic
listening and responding and giving and receiving feedback. Barriers to
effective communication would be prejudice, superiority or inferiority
complexes and fear of self-disclosure.
There is an almost adequate top-down communication structure which is
successfully used but there is a need to explore and strengthen the bottom-up
communication model. Dialogue between
seminarians and their professors/mentors can be a rich and fulfilling
experience when there is an openness to discuss sensitive issues that enable these seminarians to become good
priests themselves.

In keeping with the technological age we live
in, the clergy are encouraged to use software for processing data and
information both, at the personal and professional level. They must also not shy away from social
networking among themselves especially when friends and batch mates are in far
off parishes. With the aid of privacy
setting, their interactions with one another would be pretty secure.

Conflict and conflict resolution

Interdependence among clergy may foster
conflict. Cause for conflict could be due to bearing grudges or keeping score,
put downs and criticism in public at the seminary, clergy meetings or priests’
council. These must be addressed and sorted out. Other factors that contribute to conflict
could be groups, language, cultural and regional differences. Conflict is healthy when it enables one to
explore new ideas. It stimulates greater
creativity and the outcome would be far better.

When new ideas are shot down or scorned at by
senior and experienced priests, other priests with creative ideas feel
discouraged and fear sharing their views.
This is detrimental for making progress.
Therefore efforts must be made to create an atmosphere of trust and
acceptance. Bishops must be able to draw
out quiet priests to speak up and listen with patience and respect.

Collaboration and co-responsibility

This is possible when key positions exercising
power and authority are rotated regularly. Priests holding on to pet projects
for several years not only block out innovation and creativity but also create
a sense of domination and a feeling of indispensability. Collaboration is possible when the priest in
charge delegates and considers himself one among equals. Accepting feedback without being defensive
will ensure better cooperation and increase the level of trust. Taking ownership when projects fall short of
the expected results will make it easy for a priest to seek help from his peers
or higher-ups.

Change

We live in times of profound and rapid
change. To live is to change and to live
long is to have changed often. The
Church as a whole is challenged to make an impact on the changing social
order. Some areas for consideration
would be:

1. Training
– Formation of seminarians and religious needs to be interdisciplinary. Courses in Theology and Philosophy must be
complemented by courses in the behavioural sciences and human resources
management. Growth as a person, in
different relationships must be seen as an integral part of spiritual
formation. Wholeness is holiness.

2. Senior
priests must be mentors to young priests and seminarians. The formation of
seminarians in our Archdiocese of Mumbai has a well thought out plan and is
effectively executed to prepare them for their ministry in the church. 93% of
the lay faithful agreed that priests are well trained for the ministry.
However, we live in a dynamic and evolving society where the key to survival is
continuous learning and growth be it spiritual or emotional. We must learn from
the failures and crises of the church in the west and Europe.

Can we develop a Pastoral Development Program
that could be designed in three tiers that covers the span of priestly ministry
over a period of fifteen years? What is
envisaged is a process where senior priests and religious take on the role of a
‘role model’ and engage in pastoral mentoring for a period of at least a couple
of years after ordination? “When we see
that to learn, we must be willing to look foolish, to let another teach us,
learning doesn’t always look so good anymore...only with the support of
fellowship of another can we face the dangers of learning meaningful things.”
(Peter Senge) The key word is ‘fellowship’, a word that combines partnership,
warmth and camaraderie.

At the core of the essence of pastoral ministry is the need to provide ancient
wisdom (2000 years of catholic wisdom) to contemporary problems. In order to
fulfill this mission, the clergy need to adapt to modern times, constantly discovering what is
not known. Regular skill up gradation especially in a new digital divide world
is all the more relevant than before. The eternal flame of psycho-spiritual
growth will have to be constantly enkindled with latest research and sharing.

3. The
creation of the Bombay Archdiocese Asset Management Authority (BAAMA)
comprising the Archdiocesan hierarchy in the Board with the
responsibility of managing church estate and assets for the long term benefit
of the Archdiocese so as to optimally and professionally address future
challenges in an increasingly complex and combative environment.
This Company would be a professionally run company with competent
technical and functional resources drawn from the hierarchy and the
appropriate placement network. The proposed Asset management Company would
incorporate and include all existing resources such as legal, tax and financial advisers currently engaged
with the archdiocese.

What are the reasons for such a body ?

A. The
body could plan a long term , comprehensive perspective and continuity in
management of church properties across the archdiocese. Decisions would be
optimized so as to take care of ongoing and long terms needs of the respective
parish and the Church. Properties under a centrally controlled body would be
better managed as a portfolio taking into account a whole of issues including
financial returns, future needs and gainful use of assets.

B. Parish
Priests are appointed for tenures of around 6 years. The succession of
incumbents to the posts of parish priests creates a discontinuity in
management. Quite often problems related to these properties take a lot of time
and attention of an already over burdened parish priest. Sometimes he is the target of local and
parish pressure groups as well under threat from the
builder/politician/gangster lobby. The
individual parish priest is at times quite powerless against such powerful
vested interests. Within delegated scope of authority the parish priest would
have full autonomy to perform his duties with respect estate and
assets. Each parish would out of
necessity manage its own finances and resources within the established
parameters.

Formation of Seminarians and Women Religious

The results of the
survey on people’s perception of women religious show widely differing
responses. A majority see their role as
being confined to the sacristy and flower arrangements at the altar. Others see women religious playing a key role
in SCCs and CCOs. Many are also aware of
their important role in the field of education and caring for orphans. Many feel that they are well trained
pastorally while the on-line respondents feel that their training is poor.

Here are some suggestions that are important :

a. Include
Gender sensitivity courses as one of the subjects in Seminaries and houses of
formation.

b.
Reorient the formation of women religious towards pastoral possibilities
in the Church.

d. Affirm the pastoral work of women
religious- as catechists, lectors, and animators of Basic/Small Christian Communities, counsellors,
liturgists and Community workers through the recognition of these as
Ministries.

A cell for Human Resources and Organizational
Behavior must be
formed that undertakes some of the changes suggested above. This would also
help when priests have to be transferred, sent abroad for further studies or
put in charge of various Commissions.
This would also ensure transparency at all levels of the clergy. The cell would have to function both at the
archdiocesan level as well as the parish level so that the best resources in
the community can be harnessed for the good of all.

Questions for Discussion:

1. Mention
at least 3 most important ideas in the paper you agree with, giving reasons for
the same

2. Any
suggestions relating to the implementation and the way forward regarding the
above?

3. Please
mention any ideas in the paper you disagree with, giving reasons for the same

4. Please
mention any important aspects that you think have not been covered in the
paper.